Are there any fiction novels that help explain Hitler?
SnakHistorical Fiction
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1crazybatcow
Hard to express what I mean but... I'm kinda looking for books that are fictional (i.e. not a history lesson and not something dry and lecture-y) that explores what Hitler got up to during his reign. Preferably not ones that focus on concentration camps, but on events that occured outside of that. But not completely fictional stories (i.e. science fiction alternate history types) I'm looking for things sort of like Anne Frank...
2thorold
This might be a starting-point: http://www.librarything.com/tag/Hitler,+historical+fiction
Do you want something that focuses on Hitler-as-a-person, or the Third Reich in general? Something like Young Adolf or Winnie and Wolf might do for the first category (although they both stray a bit from the known facts). For more "what was it like living in Germany at that time?" books, it's hard to beat the people who were actually there: classics like Siegfried Lenz's The German Lesson, Alfred Andersch's Flight to afar are both a bit in the "like Ann Frank" category; Günter Grass's Tin drum and Dog years are more in the magic realism direction.
Do you want something that focuses on Hitler-as-a-person, or the Third Reich in general? Something like Young Adolf or Winnie and Wolf might do for the first category (although they both stray a bit from the known facts). For more "what was it like living in Germany at that time?" books, it's hard to beat the people who were actually there: classics like Siegfried Lenz's The German Lesson, Alfred Andersch's Flight to afar are both a bit in the "like Ann Frank" category; Günter Grass's Tin drum and Dog years are more in the magic realism direction.
3schultpe
THE FUHRER VIRUS (by Paul Schultz) is a fictional espionage thriller set in 1941 that features Hitler as a major character, and accurately explores his attitudes, beliefs, policies, etc. Check it out on Amazon.com, or Amazon.co.uk.
4spiphany
If you"re looking for books that feature Hitler and his circle specifically, nothing comes to mind for me, although that doesn't mean such books don't exist. In German-speaking contexts, this is still a bit of a taboo, I suspect.
For the experiences of ordinary Germans which try to understand the mentality and motivations of people of the time, there are several (autobiographical) novels which would qualify: Simplicius 45 by Heinz Küpper and Child Nazi by Andreas Okopenko describe the experience of WWII from a child's perspective. Thomas Bernhard's work also often deals with this (I'm thinking of "Die Ursache" specifically, but I'm not sure if it's been translated into English). The first part of Christa Wolf's Patterns of Childhood may also be of interest. Heinrich Böll and Hans Fallada have written about WWII, but are less autobiographical.
For the experiences of ordinary Germans which try to understand the mentality and motivations of people of the time, there are several (autobiographical) novels which would qualify: Simplicius 45 by Heinz Küpper and Child Nazi by Andreas Okopenko describe the experience of WWII from a child's perspective. Thomas Bernhard's work also often deals with this (I'm thinking of "Die Ursache" specifically, but I'm not sure if it's been translated into English). The first part of Christa Wolf's Patterns of Childhood may also be of interest. Heinrich Böll and Hans Fallada have written about WWII, but are less autobiographical.
5thorold
>4 spiphany:
As far as I know, Die Ursache is only available in English in the complete set of five memoirs under the title Gathering evidence. I imagine it loses a lot in translation.
As far as I know, Die Ursache is only available in English in the complete set of five memoirs under the title Gathering evidence. I imagine it loses a lot in translation.
6SusieBookworm
I'm not sure if this fits exactly what you're wanting, but I've seen the children's novel Hitler's Daughter a lot.
7jaqdhawkins
I see what the OP is saying, fiction that would tackle Hitler as a person, seeing things from his point of view. I can see that it wouldn't be a popular project to tackle as well. It could be interesting.
There is plentiful information on him after all. How he got to where he did from an inside view might actually penetrate my avoidance of WW2 films and such just because the era has been so overdone.
There is plentiful information on him after all. How he got to where he did from an inside view might actually penetrate my avoidance of WW2 films and such just because the era has been so overdone.
8.Monkey.
Erm, just for the record, because you say "like Anne Frank," you do know that that is not fiction, right?
I haven't read anything quite what you're looking for, but it seems like biographies of Hitler & some of his key players would give the most insight into that area. And as long as they're written by someone who knows what they're doing, biographies are not at all dry.
I haven't read anything quite what you're looking for, but it seems like biographies of Hitler & some of his key players would give the most insight into that area. And as long as they're written by someone who knows what they're doing, biographies are not at all dry.
9gmathis
It's been a long time, so forgive any inaccuracy in this post, but it seems like the novels by Herman Wouk -- perhaps The Winds of War and War and Remembrance -- had some pretty substantial sections written from the German point of view. (Truthfully, I skipped over them, but only because I was enjoying the main storyline so much I didn't want to waste time :)
10rocketjk
At least the first two of Phillip Kerr's Berlin Noir series are set in Berlin during the years running up to the war and give a rather chilling look (assuming they're accurate) of the culture and climate of the time and place (I haven't read the third book yet and I'm not sure of the when it's set. The books are title March Violets and The Pale Criminal. They're excellent thrillers, as well.
11k00kaburra
The Castle in the Forest deals with Hitler during his childhood - it's told through his experiences as they are witnessed by a demon who is grooming him to become the man he will one day be. It's not quite what you're looking for, since it deals with him as a child/teenager rather than as an adult 'during his reign' - but you might enjoy it.
12Lawrence8622
Drink to Yesterday and A Toast to Tomorrow are both spy thrillers set in the days during WWI and before WW II. Told from the point of view of British agents in Germany, they give some insight into why and how Hitler came to power in the aftermath of WWI. The author, Manning Coles, is a pseudonym for two people who were contemporary to the timeframe: Adelaide Frances Oke Manning, a woman who worked for the War Office during WWI, and Cyril Henry Coles, a man who worked for British Intelligence during both wars.
13konallis
It's not specifically about Hitler, but Jorge Luis Borges's short story 'Deutsches Requiem' is a psychological portrait of a Nazi officer who looks back over his life while awaiting execution. I think it captures the 'banality of evil' very well.
14Marcus3 
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I have written a crime novel, "The Murder Artist," (www.marcuswiesnercrimenovels.com) that offers an explanation of Hitler that draws from the work of the theories of the early psychoanalyst Karen Horney. Horney wrote that an extreme "search for glory" by an individual can lead to development of an arrogant-vindictive identity that has all the force of the most primitive of drives. Such an individual is not content to defeat an adversary but must grind him into dust. Hitler is seen as such a personality and it is his failed "search for glory" in the artistic realm-his inability to gain fame as a painter--that led him to the political arena where the success he found resulted in the blood bath or World War II. This "understanding of Hitler" emerges in the course of the novel as its investigative reporter protagonist tracks a Hitler-worshiping serial killer who, like his idol, is a failed painter. The book was awarded honorable mention by Writer's Digest magazine.
15flyheatherfly
You might enjoy some of Hans Fallada's novels, such as Every Man Dies Alone. He was a German who wrote novels during and set in that time period. Very powerful reading. City of Women is also set in Berlin during the war, would give you an idea of the living circumstances of everyday Germans during the time period.
16annamorphic
Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain is very interesting on this subject. In the last 1/3 of the book she is involved with the League of Nations and she visits Germany and talks to people living there under the French occupation. Her account of their anger, hatred, and general feeling of having been betrayed by their own elites was an eye-opener to me. Published in the 1930s, it's also a wonderful book about World War I for the first 2/3.
